Blue Jays steal from their ALCS rivals by signing ex-Mariners reliever

The Toronto Blue Jays are continuing their offseason trend early on in the regular season by adding as much pitching depth as humanly possible. The latest arrival is a 33-year-old right hander who last pitched in the majors in 2024 for the Seattle Mariners, Austin Voth.

Voth spent the 2025 season pitching in Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan for the Chiba Lotte Marines and he's now been placed in Triple-A Buffalo to give that farm team some depth, and perhaps provide a little bit of insurance to a Toronto team that can't seem to shake the pitching injury bug.

Ex-Mariner's reliever gets a chance to work his way back to the majors in Toronto

It's been well documented, but somehow, the Blue Jays lost three quality starters in the offseason and still managed to start the year with a formidable five-man unit. José Berrios, Shane Bieber and Trey Yesavage all sidelined to begin the year. No big deal as Toronto could still have Eric Lauer, Cody Ponce and Max Scherzer replace them for the time being.

But with Cody Ponce put on the shelf long-term after spraining his ACL in his Blue Jays debut this past Monday (Mar. 30) there are going to be some moving parts in both the Blue Jays rotation and their bullpen. That means there could be an opportunity for a veteran reliever like Voth to come up and eat some innings, if they can show they've got any big league stuff left in the tank.

Voth was originally drafted by the Washington Nationals in the fifth round of the 2013 MLB draft. In parts of five seasons with the Nationals he threw 181.2 innings with 176 strikeouts and a 5.70 ERA in 92 games, including 22 starts. His best season came in 2019, when the Nationals won the World Series, but Voth was not a part of their postseason run. He did pitch in nine games, including eight starts, and threw 43.2 innings, with 44 strikeouts and a 3.30 ERA.

Since 2022, Voth has played for Baltimore and Seattle to mixed results and hasn't started a game in the majors since the end of the 2022 season, being used exclusively out of the bullpen in '23 and '24. He pitched in 68 games for the Mariners in 2024 to a 3.69 ERA, getting 61 strikeouts in 61 innings before heading over seas.

In Japan he returned to being a starter, with 22 games played for the Marines where he threw 125 innings and had a 3.96 ERA with 92 strikeouts and 29 walks allowed. He then spent Spring Training with the Chicago White Sox and appeared in one game, throwing two innings and giving up one earned run before the White Sox released him at the end of camp.

Voth started for the Bisons on Sunday against Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and in three innings he gave up three hits, including two solo home runs and struck out two hitters. It could be a long road for Voth to get to the majors in 2026, but if the Blue Jays accrue any more injuries, Voth might be needed in The Show.